Speedway Champions

EUROPE

 - German LT championships

 - Czecho(slovak) LT chmpshp

 - Russian LT championship

 - USSR LT championship 

SCANDINAVIA

 - Sweden LTC   - Denmark LTC

 - Nordic/Scandinavian LT Chmpshp                                        Gerd Riss

AUSTRALASIA

 - Australian LT Chmpshp

 - Australian LT Grand Prix

 - New Zealand LT Chmpshp & GPs

AMERICA  

 - US national and regional LT Chmpshps

 - Canadian LT Championship

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  LongTrack Racing  

     Under the FIM designation of “Track Racing,” covering Speedway, Long Track and Ice Racing, Long Track racing in mainland Europe and Scandinavia embraces competitions on grass, dirt and sand surfaces, with track lengths of the latter generally in the region of 1000m, (v. 425m. maximum for speedway.)

     The World Championship GP series, with rounds in France, Holland, Germany and Czechia, (- see 'World Champions' page for details of Long Track world champs), includes tracks of grass and sand, - termed Langbahn or Sandbahn in German - , and with laps of a kilometre or more speeds can average over 140kph per lap, (90mph ave.)  Often on Trotting tracks or horse race tracks, similar races are held in Australia and New Zealand, where Ivan Mauger set a world record average lap speed of 144.66kph back in 1986 which still stands.

Much Long Track racing on the continent takes place on Holy Days and holidays, and in Germany it's more popular than speedway. The competition may be one of just 2 or 3 ‘track’ meetings, (or even the circuit’s only event,) that the club holds in a season and so is often staged in conjunction with the local authority on a big scale alongside other festival activities, drawing big crowds. Such big events, - speedway or Long Track - , generate sizeable Appearance moneys which attracted top speedway riders from the UK on many Sunday afternoons prior to the removal of the Iron Curtain and the opening of the Polish speedway league to British riders. (The name Mauger can be seen throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s amongst many lists of winners.)  

                       Stephan Katt,

 2011 German Long Track champion

 and winner of the         

 2011 ADAC Golden Helmet

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German Long Track Championships 

The German national Long Track Championship has been dominated since 1988 by Gerd Riss with 10 wins, and Robert Barth with 6 successes. Prior to their time Karl Maier won the title 8 times and Egon Muller 6, pre-unification. All four riders have appeared in speedway World Finals and/or SGPs, (Barth only in SGPs,) with Muller emerging as speedway World Champion in 1983. In the DDR post-war Hans Zierk was a 7-times national champion. Current champ is Stephan Katt, - seen above right at Herxheim, 2010 with the Silver Helmet.  

 Herxheim Germany 1990, World Long Track Final.

4 Wigg, 12 Schofield, 11 Maier, 8 Lausch, 3 Loram, 7 vanDirek 

ADAC Golden Helmet

The German automobile association, ADAC, have annually since 1956 on a rotational basis at tracks in the North, South and central Germany, put up for Long Track competition a Golden Helmet trophy.  Although in the last decade the trophies, new each year, have been well distributed, including a Danish, Dutch and British winner, Gerd Riss has totalled 8 wins over a 20 year period. Other successes were gained by Manfred Poschenreider 5 times, Alois Wiesbock 4x, Josef Hofmeister 3x, Ivan Mauger 2x, Wigg 2x, Tatum 2x, plus speedway World Champions Knutsson, Lee and Muller.

ADAC-Pfalz Sandbahn Silver Helmet

       A prestigious Open International Long Track competition, the ADAC-Pfalz Silver Helmet, - "Silberhelm" - , has been held annually in Herxheim, Germany for over 50 years and has always attracted star speedway and Long/Grass Track riders for the much-coveted trophy. Periodically Herxheim is nominated to hold the annual  ADAC Golden Helmet competition, (above,) when it substitutes the regional ADAC's silver headgear, the last occasion being 2009 and won by "Mr. Longtrack," Gerd Riss, seen below, with the gold helmet.

      Historically, Josef Hofmeister and Manfred Poschenreider each had 5 wins in the early years, until international participation in the form of Don Godden, UK, and Ole Olsen, Denmark, made its impact in the 1970s. Again Gerd Riss dominated another track competition with 11 wins from 1988 onward, interrupted only by Brit Kelvin Tatum in the early ‘00s with his 5 wins. Other successes were achieved by Simon Wigg and Marvyn Cox from GB, and Hans Nielsen of Denmark.

                 

DENMARK

  

AUSTRALASIA

Australia and New Zealand Long Track championships

      With Australia being acknowledged by most as the birthplace of speedway many of the showground tracks that ran speedway would, by size at least, constitute being 'Long Tracks', ie greater than 440yds or 425m. However the first Long Track Championships as such were staged at the 1-mile Port Pirie track in the state of South Australia, (designated 'Australian 5ml. Motorcycle Speed Championships', and with an 'Unlimited' top class which often featured 1000cc bikes alongside JAPs and ESOs,) where UK-based Provincial Lge riders like Geof Mudge, Ivan Mauger and 3x-winner Jack Scott were successful champs. 

In the last 20 years, on shorter alternating venues, - Port Pirie became a ½ml. track from 1967 onward - ,   Long Track championship meetings have again been staged, pulling in international LT riders from Europe including World Champions such as Simon Wigg, Kelvin Tatum and Gerd Riss, most frequently for promotions of national Championships and Grand Prix run by former champion Ivan Mauger, and coupled with similar events in New Zealand.

The most successful Anzac over this period has been Aussie Chris Watson, (above) who has taken 6 Oz Championships and GPs as well as 3 New Zealand titles over a 20 year period between his first in '89/90 and his latest in NZ in Nov. 2010. (See also the 'Australasia' page.)

 BRITISH LONG TRACK RACING

  (No Long Track national championships have ever been established in UK.)

        Several Long Track ventures were initiated in the UK in the 'seventies following initial stagings in North Wales and Kent, - listed below - , though none were British championships as, despite claims in some publications, such a title was never established.

 Promoted as Long Track meetings as opposed to grass track racing, most were run by, or in junction with, local motorcycle clubs, with surfaces varying from grass, sand, shale, or crushed limestone, and were held to attract both the top speedway riders and, hopefully, the travelling speedway supporters: other clubs continued their meetings as Grass Track competitions but with the added participation of world class speedway stars and continental grass/long track riders, e.g.  at Ludlow and Driffield, where Ivan Mauger had successes in 1975 and  '80. (These are not included here: Grass Track champions are listed elsewhere. n.b. Hereford, in '76 ran the "Grass Track GP", in '77 the "Long Track GP", in '78 the (official) "European Grass Track Chmpshp".)

   In more recent times, since the LT World Championship became a GP series in 1997, the UK has staged rounds at the grass circuits of Abingdon(2x) and Collier St. Tonbridge(2x) between '98 and '03, but it is the 1000m Skegness 'Lincolnshire Poacher' course that claims the fastest UK circuit, and which hosted the 2011 European Grass Track Championship. 

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